Mexican Chocolate Cake

Found on Slice of Life's Facebook page. To make things simpler, I'm giving you the cake as originally written, for a 12-cup bundt pan. (This is the standard size for a bundt pan in the United States.) You can play around with what pans you want or if you just want to make all cupcakes. A site I find very useful when trying to figure out what pans to use is Joy of Baking. You can look up your pan size, find out how many cups it holds by volume, and then reconfigure. Sound complicated? It's actually really easy.

• Ready In: 1 hr 40 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 slices of cake

Ingredients

• FOR CAKE

• 1  cup unsalted butter
• 1⁄2 cup  dutch-process  unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3⁄4 cup water
• 2  cups granulated sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 1⁄2 cup  well-shaken buttermilk
• 2  tablespoons vanilla
• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

• FOR GLAZE

• 2  cups  chopped pecans (7 1/2 ounces)
• 1⁄4 cup unsalted butter
• 1⁄2 cup half-and-half
• 1⁄2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 5  ounces  fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (not sweetened)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. MAKE CAKE:
2. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F Butter cake pan well and dust with flour, knocking out excess. Melt butter (2 sticks) in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in cocoa. Add water and whisk until smooth, then remove from heat. Whisk in separately sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl, the sift again into cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (don't worry if there are lumps).
4. Pour batter into cake pan on a rack 20 minutes, then loosen edges with a thin knife and invert onto a plate.
5. MAKE GLAZE:
6. Spread pecans in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and bake until fragrant and a shade darker, 6 to 8 minutes. Cool pecans slightly in pan on a rack, about 5 minutes.
7. Melt butter in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over low heat, then stir in half-and-half and confectioners' sugar. Add chocolate and cook, stirring, until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in pecans and salt. Cool glaze until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
8. Spoon glaze over top and sides of cake (cake will still be warm) and spread with a small offset spatula or knife to cover completely.
9. (Cake (With Glaze)) can be made 2 days ahead and kept at room temperature in a cake keeper or covered with an inverted bowl.